Sarah Murnaghan, a 10-year-old with end-stage Cystic Fibrosis, received her life-saving and long-awaited lung transplant Wednesday afternoon.

Sarah’s mother Janet Murnaghan announced the good news on Facebook Wednesday morning. “God is great! He moved the mountain! Sarah got THE CALL,” she wrote. “Please pray for Sarah's donor, her HERO, who has given her the gift of life. Today their family has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding. Please pray for Sarah and her surgical team and our whole family! We are overwhelmed with emotions!!!! Thank you to all of you for the unending support. Xoxoxo!! God bless! Today is the start of Sarah's new beginning and new life!”

Sarah went into surgery at 11:00 am Wednesday morning. The surgery took about six hours to perform. In the early evening, Janet Murnaghan announced on Facebook that the transplant had been successful. “We are thrilled to share that Sarah is out of surgery. Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery,” Janet wrote. “The surgeons had no challenges resizing and transplanting the donor lungs – the surgery went smoothly and Sarah did extremely well. She is in the process of getting settled in the CICU and now her recovery begins. We expect it will be a long road, but we’re not going for easy, we’re going for possible. And an organ donor has made this possible for her.”

On June 5, U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ruled that Sarah could be temporarily moved to and prioritized on the adult transplant list to better her chances for survival, given her severe condition. The adult transplant list is usually restricted to patients 12 years and older, and the chance to receive lungs is much greater than for those on the pediatric transplant list. Many child advocates find the separate transplant lists to be an unfair rule, and are fighting to get rid of the age limit.

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